Stepping up to the plates

By James Cockington

September 8, 2010 — 3.00am

There are two distinct breeds of number plate collectors and with a few exceptions, the majority tend to belong to one group or the other.

One group collects rare and unusual plates, usually concentrating on a particular theme, for example, the plates of Australian or American states. Some want a complete series of plates starting with every letter of the alphabet. Others search the world for international rarities. This style of collecting is similar to philately and plates can be valued from $10 to $1000 at the top order.

Plate up...Lawrence Jones.Credit:Paul Harris

Then there's the low number scene.

This is where the really big money is spent and, according to some, is where the big egos can be found. A kind of reverse snobbery applies here. He who drives with the lowest number wins.

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What makes these low number plates so desirable is the ''right to display'' them. The new owners will typically mount the original tinware in their dens and display brand new plates on their cars.

The record price paid for this privilege was $680,000 for NSW 2 at a Bonhams & Goodman (now Sotheby's) auction in 2003. It's rumoured that two years later, Bonhams sold NSW 6 for even more ($1 million was one guesstimate) after private negotiations between vendor and buyer after the auction.

Both results were claimed as world records at the time.

The record for a two-digit plate, NSW 18, is $248,600 and in the crazy period before the credit crash, Bonhams sold NSW 282 for $74,600 and Victoria 626 for $24,860. These are records for three-digit plates in each state.

NSW plates tend to fetch more than their Victorian equivalents, an indication of the comparative egos of each state's collectors according to some observers.

While this low-numbers market has been more cautious in recent times, the phenomenon appears to have been only slightly affected by global downturns.

Shannons is the other auction house specialising in number plates and at their latest Melbourne Classic Auction last month, a series of Victorian Heritage enamel number plates sold well, including five three-digit plates. All had the essential ''right to display'' component.

Top money paid in August was for two plates with special Ferrari significance. The right-to-display plate 599 sold for $94,000, no doubt to an owner of Ferrari's 599 GTB Fiorano. The other significant Ferrari plate was 412, which went for $65,000.

Plate 329 would have been considered more desirable than the previous two but only scored $55,000. Still, this was more than a lot of real cars could fetch, including the Bentley S1 saloon, which sold for $24,000.

This scene attracts its fair share of speculators, who will buy a low-number plate in the hope it will increase in value over the years. Some will, most won't.

There are also some good investment opportunities in the rarities market, especially in the limited editions. A series of plates produced for official vehicles at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics are considered the holy grail by Australian collectors. These are worth $2000 to $3000, small change to the low-numbers crowd but as good as it gets in this segment in Australia. These plates can't be displayed.

Similar plates were produced for the Perth Commonwealth Games in 1962 (now worth about $1200) and the 1982 Brisbane Games (about $200). More valuable is a batch of 60 smaller plates produced for motorcycles at the Brisbane Games, worth about $1000 each.

Also collectable are special plates produced for diplomatic cars in Canberra and the ones made for Australian colonies such as the Cocos Islands and Christmas Island. Both are difficult to find unless you've lived there.

Papua New Guinea plates are more common but the ones produced for members of parliament (better still, the prime minister) are very desirable. Older ones marked Territory of New Guinea are scarce and worth $500 to $1000. Another rarity is the Canberra plate marked FCT (Federal Capital Territory), produced until 1937.

This is very much an online market and it is possible to build up an international collection. Several collectors have one plate from every country and a plate from Vatican City is regarded as the hardest to find, worth about $2000. Egyptian plates are also scarce.

Another popular theme is a plate from every state in the US and a complete collection appeared at Shannons last month, selling for $1100. This is a huge hobby in the US, where conventions attract hundreds of international collectors. The Australian scene is smaller but large enough to support a number of clubs and its own annual convention.

For more information on number plate clubs and the annual Australian convention, email Lawrence Jones (see My Collection below) on bookola@hotkey.net.au.

My collection

Lawrence Jones is a number plate collector from the Gold Coast who also runs an online antiquarian bookshop.

He says he collects number plates the way other people collect stamps. His preference is for rarities and limited editions from around the world, such as the Texas Congressional Medal of Honor plate he picked up on a trip to the US.

There were only 27 of these produced. His is No.2, the second to be awarded.

Others of note include one produced for the Iraq Republican Guard during the first Gulf War. Another of his favourites is a ''huckster'' plate produced for licensed street vendors in Indianapolis.

He especially likes plates from obscure regions such as Micronesia and would love to find one from the Cocos Islands.

Lawrence currently has about 5000 plates in his collection, kept in boxes. He has picked up a few low-number plates over the years but is hoping some of the less-valuable rarities should increase in value over time.